NOD (Nugget of the Day): Irresistible Morsels from Current Reading

Most books worth reading, be they fiction or non-fiction, contain at least one or two striking phrases, phrases that stand out because they are cleverly or beautifully constructed, or because the idea(s) they contain are particularly powerful. Each of these descriptors--clever, beautiful, powerful--itself could be unpacked and further defined. Each of them, also, is subjective. Really good books contain numerous such phrases.

Not so long ago I picked up an old Aldous Huxley book, a work of historical fiction entitled The Devils of Loudon. I hadn't read more than 20 pages before realizing that there were simply too many delicious nuggets in that book to continue reading sans pencil. I stopped reading, grabbed a pencil, and instead of continuing where I'd left off previously, returned to the beginning. Armed with a pencil, I was able to capture, by underlining, the many beautiful, clever, disturbing, insightful, powerful, or shocking sentences and paragraphs.

It may be an old habit formed in university English courses, but I rarely read a book without pencil in hand. Or if it's a borrowed book, small sticky notes. And this is always the case when reading a book for review. It may take me a little longer to get through a book, stopping here and there to underline or write a note, but the process helps me find relevant points for discussion more readily. And, significantly, it is also a great aid to memory, underlining the selection, as it were, in one's memory.

To share the many wonderful nuggets contained in the books I am reading and reviewing, I will begin posting, under a new category, my nuggets of the day (NOD). I will try to post one daily, but please don't hold me too rigidly to this schedule. The NOD, conveniently, will also serve as a nod to the book (and author) from which (whom) it is derived. Less significantly, it will also provide busy readers with daily fascinating and thought-provoking, yet quickly-read, posts. There shall be no reason, if you'll excuse the pun, to nod off when reading these.